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The Internal Revenue Service recently cleared a Southern Baptist pastor in California of wrongdoing for his endorsement of former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
Pastor Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., had endorsed Huckabee as an individual and not as the representative of the church, concluded the IRS letter addressed to Drake, according to Religion News Service.
Had the IRS ruled otherwise, Drake’s church would have lost its tax-exempt status for engaging in politics.
Last summer, Drake had issued a press release on a church letterhead announcing his support of Huckabee and encouraging fellow Southern Baptists to do likewise. He also used his radio show to communicate his support for the former Arkansas governor to his listeners.
But he insisted that the involvement of the church and talk show was only to help identify him and was not part of an endorsement.
“The church didn’t endorse anybody nor did the radio program,” maintains Drake, a former second vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention, in an interview Monday with RNS. “I personally did.”
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The IRS had started probing Drake when Washington-based Americans United for Separation of Church and State had brought the incidents to the IRS’ attention.
But lawyers from the Christian religious freedom group, Alliance Defense Fund, quickly assisted Drake, who also signed the ADF’s new initiative which seeks to empower pastors to challenge IRS rules about discussing political candidates from the pulpit.
"Christians should not be penalized for expressing their beliefs, and that includes pastors," said Erik Stanley, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund. "We are pleased the IRS recognized that the attempt to have this church's tax-exempt status revoked was without merit."
Drake said he and other pastors will continue to fight for their right to preach against sin and bad politicians.
“And if the IRS doesn't like that, that's too bad," Drake said, according to OneNewsNow.
